“Ironically, the black person in this society (the United States) in many ways is the most advanced at a given level of perception. They have perceived that the system is essentially fraudulent. This is what brothers and sisters here see, which many Africans and West Indians have not yet perceived. It is because we (West Indians and Africans) take the system seriously, at its own evaluation, that we want to move up within it, and so there is that dedication to get there. However, brothers and sisters here in America perceive the sham of the system. They say, we’re not into that at all. That’s foolishness. That’s the white man’s game.”
– pg. 4, WALTER RODNEY SPEAKS, Africa World Press, 1990
Almost a hundred years ago, in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, an American Indian by the name of Jim Thorpe was the big star. The year after the Games, however, they stripped Thorpe of his gold medals and humiliated him on the grounds that he had played baseball for money for a few months. In other words, they declared him a professional.
The majority of the population in the United States is white. It is natural for people to protect and extol their own, so presently the American media are going nuts over the attempt by one of their white American own, Michael Phelps, to break the record for most gold medals in a single Olympic Games and the record for most gold medals ever.
Ethnicity should never be as important as humanity. I can’t really get angry at some of you non-white Belizeans who are getting carried away with the Phelps’ quest. After all, we’re human beings all, made in the image and likeness of God. And you are being programmed by American television to join in the Michael Phelps excitement.
But right now the Olympics don’t mean diddly to me personally. I suppose when Asafa Powell, Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay crouch in the 100 meter blocks, I will make it my business to be watching. But apart from that, I don’t care. I’m sweating fever for Marion Jones. She’s in jail, a young mother, and the penitentiary ain’t nice.
We’ve received mail back here from people, Americans I presume, defending the American judicial system and arguing that Marion got what she deserved. But Roger Clemens isn’t going to get what he deserves. If it’s the last thing George Bush does before he ends his two terms, he will make sure Clemens is given immunity. Roger Clemens is what they call in America, a “good ‘ol boy” – Texan to the bone.
I wonder how many of the people who have won Olympic gold medals were using supplements which were banned. I would say thousands. But when we Belizeans finally won gold, after decades of not even qualifying, they rained all over our parade. They put our girl in jail. It wouldn’t have been this way if she was a member of the majority ethnicity in America. I believe that. Just like I believe Jim Thorpe got screwed because he was a Native American. And Jack Johnson, because he was black. The list is long.
I don’t hate America. I don’t even hate white America. What I don’t like is for some of my own Belizean people to be swept up in a bogus exercise. The important thing for us Belizeans right now shouldn’t be Michael Phelps. It should be Marion Jones.
I’ve never met Marion Jones. When all the celebrities in Belize were fighting to get a piece of her, Jones never found time to link with the zinc. Nobody could have been bigger than Marion Jones. And yet, they found a way to bring her down, bring her down to her knees. This is how the game is played. It’s played rough.
A couple weeks ago, Marion asked President Bush for a pardon, and they didn’t even look at her. She’d already served more than two thirds of her sentence. I know every day in jail is like a million years, but still, after all she’d been through, Marion needed to become defiant. America will never embrace her again. They made her a loser.
America was good to me, Jack. They gave me a university education, and then I got the hell out of there. It was Belizeans that put a real hurting on me, but it had to be that way. That’s all I will say. When she was on top of the world, Marion made the world to know that she was a Belizean. For that, we Belizeans will love her to death. She made us somebody. Maximum respect. Now that she’s been disgraced, Marion is insisting on being an American. I hope it works for her. I really do.
Part of the reason the Mexicans are the way they are, is because they are immediately south of the United States. S— blows down their way from the north, and they don’t like it, not one damned bit. It’s the same thing with the Cubans. Before Fidel, their island was being used as a cesspool by the Americans. Americans love America. Belizeans, we should love Belize.
Arriba y adelante. Power to the people.